Florida Eyes Crop Damage From Floods

CHRISTINE BLANK

Tropical Storm Fay flooded large parts of Florida's Atlantic coast last week, raising concerns among state officials that it could damage crops as it slowly rolled through the northern half of the state.

“We do need water — we have been in a three-year drought — but we don't like that much water at one time,” said Kevin Morgan, director of agricultural policy for the Florida Farm Bureau in Tallahassee.

Peanuts, corn, cotton and other crops in northern Florida could be damaged if the area gets more than around 10 inches of rain, Morgan said.

“Peanuts and cotton are in the ground. If they get a significant amount of water, we could get crop damage,” Morgan said. “If we get 8 to 10 inches, like they are predicting, the water will probably run off,” Morgan added.

Some pastures and farms in Brevard County are flooded, but the Florida Farm Bureau did not have any estimates on crop losses.

The flooding was so bad in portions of Brevard County, which was expected to receive up to 30 inches of rain by the time the storm leaves the state, that Gov. Charlie Crist asked President Bush for emergency federal aid.

“Tropical storm Fay has produced widespread and, in some cases, historic flooding. Heavy rain in excess of eight inches has fallen across large portions [of 11 counties],” Crist wrote in a letter to Bush last Thursday, asking him to declare a state of emergency for Florida.

Late last week, Fay was expected to move slowly across northern Florida and affect the Panhandle and possibly the Gulf Coast.

The storm had not damaged or shut down any major grocery stores in the state by late Thursday.

As a precaution, Winn-Dixie released all non-critical employees from its headquarters in Jacksonville by noon on Thursday, while some Publix stores in the northern and western part of the state needed to close early.

“We released people early so they could get home safely. Some of the major bridges were closed today,” Robin Miller, a spokeswoman for Winn-Dixie, told SN. Winn-Dixie has about 1,000 employees at its corporate office. “We asked people who are critical to the operations of the company, such as IT staff, to stay at the headquarters, but there were provisions made for them,” Miller added.

However, some Publix Super Markets stores in St. Augustine and Palm Coast closed at 1 p.m. on Thursday, and certain stores in Jacksonville Beach and Ponte Verda Beach closed at 6 instead of 10 p.m., according to Maria Brous, a spokeswoman for Publix. About 12 stores in Flagler, St. John's and Duval counties closed early.

Most grocery stores were able to continue operating in areas that were already flooded, including Barefoot Bay and Melbourne, both in Brevard County.